


And the Stars Will Be Your Home

by mira_las_estrellas



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Drug Use for Research, Gen, Mushrooms, My boy Stamets loves mushrooms of course he's gonna get high on that, Pre-Starfleet Stamets, Recreational Drug Use, Sort Of, The Author Has No Clue What She's Even Doing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 17:22:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12775812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mira_las_estrellas/pseuds/mira_las_estrellas
Summary: Paul Stamets loves mushrooms, their culture, and the culture surrounding them. If ingesting psilocybine is what it takes to know more, he'll gladly do it.That's when he discovers that the stars are very bright, and he needs to touch them.





	And the Stars Will Be Your Home

**Author's Note:**

> Do I love Stamets so much I literally wrote 1.2k of him being high on mushrooms? Yes. Admittedly not my best piece, but I gotta get my love for this man out there. Also, this is definitely unbeta'd, so if anybody wants to come forward and help me fix this disaster writing, feel welcome. 
> 
> I've never been high, but tried to do a bit of research. If anyone has, ahem, experience, feel free to correct me!

Paul Stamets really loves mushrooms.

Fungi are, admittedly, quite the odd conversation topic according to most people. Most balk at the idea that one of the young boy's main interests are mushrooms. Mushrooms, spores, their effects, their biology, everything related to their culture or the culture to them related. He should love reading, astrophysics, maybe knitting or musicals or acting.

But Paul Stamets is really passionate about mushrooms, and despite having enough social skills to gather the cue that he probably should not be so open about the topic, he has long decided he does not, in fact, give a flying fuck, and will talk about mushrooms as much as his heart pleases.

Oh, he also talks about science in general, and exploration. He loves knowledge a lot more than he loves one particular bioproduct, but he does love this specific kind of knowledge a bit more than the others.

Admittedly, he doesn't always make the best decisions in pursuing his research, he thinks. His body is heating up. He has no idea whether he's already high. He just knows he loves his mushrooms. A lot. And that the wall seems to be moving, but he knows it isn't actually moving.

On the other hand, that... That looks like a very clear sign that he is actually already high. Okay, yes. He is high, and the wall is moving, and he probably should be freaking out. He isn't freaking out, yet. He knows it's the mushrooms.

Except he has no experience, nor any idea on how to handle a mushroom high, and he is mildly freaking out. He might get a heart attack, or permanent brain damage. That would be absolutely detrimental to his career - he likes his career. He likes his studies. He wants to do something important for science and help people.

Okay, yeah, he is hyperventilating, and it hurts a lot. Was it even supposed to hurt? It shouldn't hurt. He just... He just remembered Actually, he didn't. Did he read anything about the effects of mushrooms that could have led to immediate death?

There's something trying to breach the haze - he hadn't even realized there was a haze to begin with. The something approaches, and Stamets is sure it's trying to talk to him, but he can only see its words, and their shape, soft and round and at times spikey, and it hurts. Every time he tries to focus on it, it slips away, until something touches him, and Paul realizes the something is his best friend.

His eyes are so black. So deep. Paul could get lost in them. So deep.

"Dude, can you hear me?" Straal - Straal, that's right - asks, waving a hand in front of Paul's eyes. Paul follows it. It's too bright. So bright. It shines. It's like a small sun. Maybe that's where the Sun actually is.

"Dude? Paul. Paul, can you hear me?" the voice asks, so much louder this time. Paul blinks

"Yes?"

"You were spacing off for the last thirty minutes. I was about to call for medical aid."

"I'm fine. I think."

Words are so hard to pronounce, and he doesn't care, couldn't honestly care less. The silence lets him think. The glow in Straal's hand grows a bit brighter, and he goes back to observing it.

"Your hand is glowing."

"Okay."

"You are glowing. Oh... Oh, no." he whispers, terror slowly filling his chest until it's about to burst. He grabs Straal's hand and it's too cold, the warmth has left him.

"You're going to explode. Please don't explode."

Straal sighs, like he doesn't understand, or seem to care that he is going to explode. "I'll try not to," he says, and Paul feels himself smile in relief, just for a second, before realization dawns on him.

"Am _I_ going to explode?"

"No." Straal says immediately. He is convinced, he knows. "Hey, Paul, look. It's the mushrooms. What do you see?"

"They... They glow." Paul whimpers, pointing at the hands. Some part of his mind argues, for a moment, that it's probably a hallucination, that he took hallucinogenic substances and they're playing with his senses, but that doesn't stop the glowing, or the warmth that comes from Straal's hands, not his own. His are glowing and heating up, too.

"The hands?"

He nods.

"That's fine. I think we need to just sit down and relax a bit, yes?"

And he nods again, and lets Straal guide him to sit down and relax. Or try to. He can't actually relax, he realizes. The stars on their ceiling - they move. They shine, like the hands, and spin around so slowly, warp and come closer and fall and go so far away. The ceiling moves with them, but he's not afraid, it probably won't harm them, even if it does fall down. He probably would just end up among the stars.

He really wants to see the stars.

They're shining from up, in their ceiling - or, no. Not a ceiling. A sky. It's a sky. They're outside. They had moved the couch outside beforehand. He wanted to move it so he could see the stars. They are very beautiful even if they're all about to fall down and eat them.

The mushrooms are at his side, he remembers now. His first mushrooms. He probably could eat more. Or grow more.

And suddenly, realization dawns upon him, and he gasps, absolutely sure the stars are in his eyes.

"Do you think the mushrooms can talk to the stars?" he whispers, and Straal raises his head from the table where he's been sleeping.

"The- buh? What? Uh, yes." - he drawls, and Paul thinks it might just be his mind, but maybe his friend really is drawling - "They probably can."

"You could grow mushrooms in space. You could eat them in space. I bet space mushrooms taste like stars."

"Yes, Paul. They do, probably."

"I bet they make you travel." he says, and the words are coming out so quickly now. The stars are so bright and so beautiful. "Become the sun. You could walk among the stars. You could swim in dark matter." A content sigh escapes his lips, and he feels the universe in his eyes. It's wide, and amazing, and it's all thanks to his mushrooms.

"Aren't mushrooms amazing? I think they are amazing. I love mushrooms, I--" and he's crying, because it's true, the little things are amazing and nobody understands - "I want to walk in the stars."

"Join Starfleet," Straal says, and Paul's eyes widen again. The stars probably live in them right now.

"Yes, that's a good idea. I will."

"What? Paul, dude, no. It was a joke."

"I wanted to join Starfleet when I was a child. I'm going to. I'm smart."

There's a hand on Stamets' shoulder, cold and comforting amidst the warmth that is now fading. Oh. He can form sentences. He's probably coming down. That felt so quick, but when he manages to move his head and throw a glance at the clock on their wall, he realizes the hands have moved so much. How much, that escapes him, but they've moved. The little hand has. That's supposed to be the hour's hand, he remembers that.

He has flown a lot, but it was so short. The stars... Has he spent all his time watching the stars waver?

It was the stars. They're so close, he knows it. So close, he could touch them, immerse his hand in them and live among them, and never come down again.

"I'm gonna join Starfleet," he whispers, and even through his closed eyes, he can hear Straal sigh.

"Yes, you are, Paul. You'll have fun."

**Author's Note:**

> ...what a _trip_ , eh, eh? 
> 
> *cricket chirps* 
> 
> Okay, okay, I get it. I'll walk myself out. If you read this and enjoyed it (or not!), then please take the time to leave a comment? And if you want to talk anything Star Trek or writing, feel free to message me on my tumblr (@thedeadliestlittleone)


End file.
